Numbers in a City: New Haven, CT / 1997 / SML Projects

Summary

Typographic landscape of a city described through visually counting from 1 to 100.

Setup

These were shot with my first digital camera, the Sony Mavica FD7.

Statement

This was my first photography project. It started out as a project for a typography class while I was in college. Like most graphic design assignments at Yale, it was very open ended. We were asked to show the experience of a city through the language of typography. I have always been interested in numbers, and I as such I decided to run around New Haven and photograph numbers which represent the city, from 1 to 100.

The series is to be projected on the wall as a slideshow. The numbers are recognizably New Haven, and most who have been in New Haven can recognize the sense of time and space as they go through the series. Some commented that it reminded them of Sesame Street.

It was so successful that I thought of extended this to different neighborhoods in New York, but I never had the time to work on more of them after college, and as such I have only completed the first and only one...

The original series was displayed via a conventional slide projector. In order to best-simulate the original intention on a computer, view the set as a slideshow and set the speed to fast.

SML Licensing

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If you are interested in using my assets in a non-share-alike basis, they will be considered on a case-by-case basis. You can contact me at seeminglee+rfi@gmail.com